Google Trends: Fear, Trembling, Financial Armageddon

Internet search patterns reflect growing concern about financial security, comScore (SCOR) reports.

More Americans are seeking information about unemployment benefits, job listings and coupons, the digital click-counter says.

“Online behavior has come to reflect the interests or concerns of Americans, and we are certainly seeing this manifest itself with respect to the economic downturn,” Gian Fulgoni, comScore’s chairman, said in a prepared statement. “Search volume using terms relating to the economy has ballooned over the past year as Americans have become increasingly concerned over their economic well-being.”

This is a light-bulb moment - a revelation so telling yet so obvious that most people don’t think about it except to say, “Well, that figures.”

ComScore compiled the numbers comparing finance-related key words searched at home, work and university locations in December 2008 and December 2007:
 

• “Unemployment benefits” posted the largest percentage increase, rising to 748,000 searches in December 2008 from 215,000 in December 2007, an increase of about 247%.
  
  
• “Unemployment” rose to 8.2 million searches in December 2008 from 2.7 million in December 2007, an increase of about 206%. “Coupons” searches rose to 19.9 million from 7.6 million, an increase of about 161%.
  
  
• “Bankruptcy” searches rose to 2.6 million from 1 million, an increase of about 156%.
  
  
• “Foreclosure” searches rose to 1.4 million from 824,000, an increase of about 67%.
  
  
• “Discount” searches rose to 7.9 million from 6.3 million, an increase of about 26%.

Searches for “unemployment” skew toward adults aged 18 to 35 earning less than $50,000 a year. Interestingly, this demographic group were more likely to use Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT), or Ask.com, rather than Google (GOOG) or AOL (TWX).

But those out of work aren’t sitting on their hands. In January, CareerBuilder was the top job site, with 20.8 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo's Hot Jobs at 11.7 million and Monster (MWW) with 9.5 million, Nielsen reports.

Unique visitors among persons aged 65 or above increased 41% year-over-year, to 3.6 million, suggesting an opportunity for advertisers: There’s nothing automatic about retirement any more.

The figures provide a snapshot of how people react to the economic downturn - and are likely to provide continued employment for graduate students writing PhD dissertations for years to come.